I think at one time there was a post here, or the Northwest site on bunkers, there were several avalible options for sure. It was pretty interesting some of the set ups they had. Even some log and earthan structures were in there too. Pretty cool, just to bad we have to consider these things though. The way things are now it makes me wounder if maybe I should have considered the old S.A.C. sight I saw for sale back in the late 70's. It was a 25 acre peice and all in/on it, genarators complete comercial type kitchen and the whole works, completley self contained facility, just early 60's vintage. If I remember it went for something like 35000 or something and eventually ended up as part of the Adirondack Park with surface the traces baried and planted over. Barley could put a concrete box in the south 40 no less set it up, for that now. And especally a facility like that one, the old man took me there once years ago. He used to do the comunications systems for the State of NY in the upstate area and some of there main stuff was there so we had access to it. It was pretty neat and spooky all at the same time, don't think I'd like that life style if i had my choice.

If I hit the Powerball Lottery, I'd buy one of the old missile silos and convert it, like some have done. Nice big elevator to get the car collection up and down, nice living areas, TONS of storage for food, water, ammo, guns, etc.... Put in a nice self contained air scrubber system. Put in a few BIG gas, diesel, and natural gas storage tanks. I would try and set it up to be as self sufficient as possible. Stock it up like you're never gonna leave, ever. Make your hole your own "country" basically.

Enforcement, NOT Amnesty!!!!!!

"If they’re going to come here illegally, apply for & receive assistance through a corrupted Government agency encouraging this lawless behavior, work under the table & send billions of dollars each year back to their families in Mexico, while bleeding local economies dry, protest in our streets waving their Mexican flags DEMANDING rights, while I have to press ’1′ for English, then they need to be shipped back to where they came from!" -Chad Miller

With the recent storms and associated damage, such "shelters" may become more attractive; the new "safe or panic room". It has always surprised me that a whole-house approach is not taken. Insulated concrete form (ICF) construction is a good choice, but dry stacked "cinder blocks" (CMU) are also viable. ICF construction seems the most promising. Inside condensation issues are eliminated (as in a sweating toilet tank). Dry stacking is more DIY. Storms (of all manner) often strike at night, with little warning, and no time to retreat to a shelter. Why not make the whole house safe? This would also eliminate unnecessary duplication of spaces/functions. No need to have 2 kitchens... unless you REALLY like to cook. Since dirt serves well to stop projectiles (reference "sand bags") berming the structure adds another level of security; or at least a berm perimeter. I know folks in tornado alley who live in underground or bermed homes. Perhaps they are ahead of the time...

Not sure if any of you caught the show last night, but it was interesting. High end money that most folks couldn't afford. Main one they were dealing with last night was a 1700 sq ft unit for $450,000.00!!!!!!!! Damn nice though. Basically a steel walled house underground. From the inside the only give away that it wasn't a normal home was no windows. Other than that it was paneled and dry walled, carpeted, furnished, etc.... like any other home. Nice stairwell leading down to it, with a pretty dang strong blast door to keep out the neighbors. Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical resistant air purification system, unlimited water supply from an aquifer 700' below the unit. Full sewer/septic system. Definitely well thought out by the manufacterer and owner. I would absolutely love to have something like that, but unless I hit the lottery or a long lost rich uncle dies, and leaves me a buttload of $$$$$, it's the stuff of fantasy. Fun to watch and dream though.

Enforcement, NOT Amnesty!!!!!!

"If they’re going to come here illegally, apply for & receive assistance through a corrupted Government agency encouraging this lawless behavior, work under the table & send billions of dollars each year back to their families in Mexico, while bleeding local economies dry, protest in our streets waving their Mexican flags DEMANDING rights, while I have to press ’1′ for English, then they need to be shipped back to where they came from!" -Chad Miller

That blast door was a joke. After shoving a wood 2X4 through an $8K commercial blast door, they essentially built the same thing with a few extra layers of sheetmetal. I'm paying a half mill for a bunker, I want a door that weighs about a ton, is constructed of multiple layers of THICK steel, Kevlar, concrete etc. in a sandwich that will stop projectiles, blasts, and cutting torches. Of course, the smart guys just dig down to the bunker wall and cut through it, only 3/8" steel sheet. That's why I would encase everything in a couple feet of concrete before backfilling.

OTOH, the little autonomous robot that fires on anything that moves? Gimme about a dozen of those things with MAG58s attached, 1000rd belts in place.

In an abundance of caution, the show does not depict how the install is done, there could have been a concrete pour that happened off camera.

What I saw that set off my alarms and pegged by bullshit meter was:

1. The entrance was sad to say the least. No attempt at hardening. No attempt at camouflage.

2. No clue how or if they water-proofed or sealed the unit.

3. Why, in Gods name would you put a generator outside the shelter where you could not get to it???

4. How do you E&E if the gomers are camped out on your doorstep?

4. I tend to fall back on the very traditional wisdom when talking about these things.

a. Any fixed fortification, by any name is obsolete. So we rely on camo, and decoys to distract the bad guys.

b. If you plan for 6 months, you had best prep for 18 months.

c. 100 lbs of ammo costs $300. $100 lbs of rice, beans, and grains cost less than $35. What is most important?

d. The reality that is lost on the folks that the show depicts, I think is that this shelter will be the only home that they will ever again have should things go poorly in our world. 1100 Sq. Ft. is not that much.

I have started working with a buddy of mine, and we are going to design and implement a workable DIY shelter system that is made of shipping containers.
I know all about what has been written on the subject, and I have seen all of the info on the web....
Our plan, simply put, is to invert the shipping containers, construct a simple false floor and fill that with storage and water tanks, add an exoskeleton similar to what you might have noticed on the show last night that includes the ease of adding rebar horizontally, and can be built in several configurations to suit individual needs.
Our plan is a not for profit one.

We shall see what the future holds, in the mean time stock up on rice, beans, and grains. Cheap, and will carry you a long way. Add some sugar, salt, pepper and other bulk spices, then worry about the meat, and the freeze-dried stuff.

The shelters seem really good for protecting you from everything but people. Even though protecting from people seemed to be the focus of the show. It seems to me that "people" would dig you out of there easily even with simple shovels. I agree that only the dumbest would go after the thing through the door. I think that I would go ahead and clog any vents that stick out of the shelter as well if I were breaking in. Lets see how long you stay in there without air to even vent the smell of your farts. The single bunker with a single family inside just dosen't seem substainable if anyone finds the bunker. I think that you would need to somehow cover the outside of the bunker so that people can't pick at any of them however they want. Since we're dreaming here, I would want two or three smaller bunkers that are capable of covering each other via some type of hardened gun ports. I just don't think that the lone wolf works out to well when the human factor is involved.

my whole problem with this episode was the reverse polarity idea????????????, I can see floods, rains, tornado' hurricanes, economy on collapse, social upheavel, O getting re-elected but of all the disaster scenerios
reverse polarity??